


The Golden Glass Ball

by masongirl



Category: Band of Brothers (TV 2001)
Genre: Affection, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Childhood Sweethearts, Children, Cute Kids, First Crush, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Innocence, M/M, Presents, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:00:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29275080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masongirl/pseuds/masongirl
Summary: There's a new boy in Ron's class who has sad brown eyes and a scar on his face.
Relationships: Carwood Lipton/Ronald Speirs
Comments: 7
Kudos: 25





	The Golden Glass Ball

**Author's Note:**

> Written in response to a Tumblr ask. I couldn't help it, the idea was too adorable. Their ages are unspecified but I was thinking third or fourth grade maybe.

The first day of school is always a bad day because Ron hates sitting in a classroom for hours when he could enjoy the last weeks of summer weather outside. He wishes he could go looking for vantage points to watch his imaginary enemies or search for mines in the ground. His mom scolds him whenever he does the latter because he dug out Mrs Beckett's red tulips last spring, but that just means he has to be more stealthy about it.

The only exciting thing that happens on this particular first day is the arrival of three new classmates. Two girls and a sad boy with a scar on his face. Ron doesn't care about the girls - they seem shy and too weak to defend themselves in the event of a civil war, so he ignores their introductions, but he pays attention to the boy. He says his name is Carwood and he wants to be a firefighter, which is superior to every other job except for being a soldier, of course. Ron likes him. He wonders how he got his scar. Was it a wild bear? Or a machete? He thinks about it all the way home.

Carwood is one of the nicest people Ron knows. He always shares his bubble gums with his friends and he takes George Luz to the nurse when he breaks his middle finger with a basketball. He's very smart too, even if he stays just as quiet about it as Ron, not talking unless he's called on by the teacher. But most importantly, he's good at sports. He's better than anyone else, and Ron loves to compete with him and laugh together at the end of a race. Carwood's brown eyes are always so sad that Ron makes it his mission to see them light up every day.

They don't talk much because Carwood's seat is in the second row and Ron sits in the back, but Ron feels a strange fluttery sensation in his belly every time they have a moment together. It's like when his dad drives the car over a hump on the road too fast. He wants to ask Carwood if he'd play with him, but Carwood has too many friends and Ron doesn't want to share his games with any of them. He just watches them from afar. While they're flying a kite or playing a game on one of the girls' phones, or when Joe Liebgott brings his toy cars to school.

Ron talks to his mom about it because his mom is way better at talking to people than he is, but she doesn't give him any good advice. She tells him there's nothing to be scared of, she's sure that Carwood's friends are just as nice as Carwood, and that Ron could ask them all to play. When Ron crosses his arms and says that they're not smart enough to understand his games and that only Carwood would understand, she laughs and calls him her cutest boy. Which is stupid because he's her only boy, and he's not cute. Only baby animals can be cute.

A few days later, they watch his mom's favourite movie and Ron has a brilliant idea. He'll give Carwood gifts! That will show that Ron is far more interesting than Carwood's lame friends.

Ron has a glass ball collection, which he uses as gems, money, magic or cannonballs when he plays. He picks out a few of the most beautiful ones, those that remind him of Carwood. The one with the dark golden swirl in it, because it's the colour of Carwood's hair in the sunshine. The one that glows at night, because he's sure that Carwood's smile would be bright enough to do that too if they had a sleepover. Ron has never had a sleepover with any of his friends, but he imagines it sometimes.

He carries the balls in his pockets all morning the next day, planning to give them to Carwood during lunch, but Carwood is missing from the table and some of the teachers look nervous. Ron frowns. That's not right. He has to find Carwood and make sure he's okay. He thinks of a plan. He tells Miss Amy that he needs to go to the bathroom and sneaks out into the schoolyard. There are a lot of places to hide there, and he knows them all. He spends most of his recesses scouting the area.

After a few misses, he stops to think about it under the giant sycamore behind the groundskeeper's shed. He's just about to start off in the direction of the gym because he knows there's a bush covered in spiders there, and the teachers wouldn't climb over it to check the nook behind it, he's sure. But then, he hears a quiet sniff, and when he looks up, he spots Carwood's sneakers high up in the tree.

"Carwood?" He cranes his neck, trying to get a better look.

Carwood's face appears between the leaves. His cheeks are blotchy. "Ron? What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you." Ron replies and starts to climb the tree, but its flaky bark comes off under his fingers and he scrapes his arms a little as he slips back down to the ground. His trousers get all dirty at the knees. "How did you get up there?"

Carwood rubs his eyes, then gestures at the shed. "I climbed on the roof first."

Ron goes to follow him, but Carwood tells him to stay there and he comes down himself. He and Ron sit in the grass and lean back against the tree side by side. The sun shines just right to warm their legs but leave their faces in the comfortable shade. It's sad that in a couple of weeks, all the leaves will be a yellow-brown carpet on the ground. But then Christmas will be close so it's all right.

"Why were you crying?" Ron asks quietly. His shoulder is pressed to Carwood's and he's extremely careful not to move away.

Carwood wipes his puffy, red eyes again. "Hinkle called me Frankenstein."

Ron balls his hands into fists. Hinkle's Maths homework is going to disappear tomorrow. "He's stupid. And ugly."

Carwood chuckles wetly and pulls his knees up to his chest. "I hate this scar."

Ron stares at him with wide eyes. "Why? I think it's really cool. You can make up all sorts of stories about it. You could say you got it while you were exploring the Amazon or even that a shark bit you."

That gets a laugh out of Carwood, and his warm brown gaze locks on Ron's. "You're so smart. Why don't you talk more often?"

Ron's cheeks heat up. "I don't like to share."

Carwood nods, and some of the sadness returns to his eyes. "I don't share the important things either."

Ron runs his fingers through the grass nervously, then reaches into his pocket and pulls out the glass balls. He lays his sweaty hand on Carwood's knee, palm up, holding the shiny gifts in it. "I don't know if you like glass balls, but I think they're really beautiful and you can - you can play with them in a lot of ways, like, they can be gemstones or dragon eggs for example."

He feels breathless when he finishes the sentence, which is silly because he's just sitting there and not running or anything, but Carwood's smile is worth it a thousand times. "Did you get these for me?"

Ron bites his lip. "They're mine but you can have them. And then we can play together."

Carwood beams. He holds the gold-streaked one up to the sunlight. "Pretty."

"Yes." Ron says, watching Carwood's face.

"Thank you, Ron." Carwood turns back to him, his sadness gone. He scoops up the rest of the balls too, then curls his free hand around Ron's. His legs straighten again. "You're cute."

Ron's heart trips in his chest. He turns back to stare at his battered sneakers resting in the grass beside Carwood's, the sunshine warm on his thighs and Carwood's fingers tight around his, and he realizes it's not so bad to be called cute after all.

_ ~End~ _


End file.
